And second-place finishes in the San Diego Section Division I finals and section Masters meet have only served to motivate Ian Baker this season.

But he isn’t wrestling at 152 this year.

The 6-foot-1 Baker has put on 30 pounds of muscle and now wrestles at 182, where he’s ranked No. 1 in San Diego, seeded No. 1 at the prestigious 5 Counties meet and ranked No. 5 in California.

Q: What did you learn from last year?

A: To train hard and go hard every second I’m on the mat. I can’t afford to take a day off.

Q: Were you happy with second-place finishes?

A: No. I was pretty disappointed. I lost to the same kid — Renas Hassan of El Cajon. I thought I could beat him at Masters, but I wasn’t good in neutral, and I didn’t defend his shot well. He was shooting low at my opposite leg, and I didn’t know how to defend it.

Q: What did you learn from that?

A: I learned I need to fix some things.

Q: How much training do wrestlers do?

A: We train a lot. My focus lately has been on Anaerobic Fit-X and plyometrics. I want to be more explosive. I try to be in the gym three times a day for two hours, not including practice.

Q: Are you kidding me?

A: To be the best, you have to do more than the other guys.

Q: You’ve said you want to be a two-time state champion. What do you have to do to accomplish that?

A: My coaches and the trainers are looking out for me. I’ll do what they tell me. I trust my coaches. I’ll take what they tell me, and we’ll form a plan.

Q: You wrestled at 152 last year. You’re at 182 this season. What happened?

A: I lifted a lot over the summer. My goal was to gain 25-30 pounds and make it all muscle.

Q: It wasn’t just all working out, was it?

A: No. I ate everything. I didn’t eat a ton of junk, but I ate a lot of high-calorie food. I did eat some candy and drank soda because we don’t do that in season.